Penn State

So yeah, this whole Penn State thing is a hot mess. It hurts my soul to know that children (children in a program that was supposed to help them) were being sexually abused and a bunch of grown-ass men were standing around, not doing a thing about it. What's even worse is that Penn State students are rioting, because said grown men have lost their jobs.

This is definitely a case of misplaced outrage. This whole situation is especially shocking to me because it totally goes against everything I've been taught as a woman, an American and as an adult. Let me explain . . .

As a Woman

As a woman there are places that I can't go alone. I cannot count how many times in my life a man (or sometimes a group of women) have walked me out to my car - or apartment. Or how many times I have had to depend on a male friend to give another dude the hint to back the heck off. There are times when a man has yelled or antagonized me in some way or other while I was alone, because he knew that as a female, he had the upper hand and I was afraid. And I'm not going to lie, in these very instances, I thought to myself If I were a man - I would jack you up, like right now. I've also seen men step up and get extra - I don't know - righteous about situations. Like threatening to kick somebody's booty if they get out of line. And those were moments in my life where I have been appreciative - because as a woman, I can tell you the law - but men can lay down the law. And that's pretty awesome.

So as a female, the member of the (physically) weaker sex, it shocks me to the core that a man, who has nothing to lose, doesn't stop another man from raping a little boy in the shower. Like isn't there some kind of innate masculine alarm that should go off and make a man grab the other guy and pull him off the boy and commence to whooping his ass? I've seen men fight over much less. (As a child, I remember seeing a man haul off and start fighting some other guy in a TGIFriday's just because the other guy was rooting for a different football team.) Now I'm not saying that if a woman had of stumbled upon something like that, she has an excuse to walk away. She would be just as accountable as McQuery for not trying to break that ish up and calling the police, but it really shocks me that a man would not have went to the more primitive side of his brain and (like I said before) commenced with the ass whooping without a second thought.

As an Adult

I remember getting the "if something happens to you, tell an adult" speech ad-nauseum as a child. And as a child, this solidified 2 things for me. #1 - it taught me that adults are going to handle situations the right way. And if something is going wrong, I could always find relief in knowing that a grown-up is going to help me. (F-, I'm choking up just typing this). And #2 - it taught me that part of my job - when I became an adult - was to help kids because . . . well, that's just what grownups are supposed to do. So the one thing I couldn't wait for was to become a grown up. And now that I am an adult - I still feel the same way. It's a part of my job to look out for children, animals, hell - anyone who doesn't have a say. So if a kid came up to me in the store and said, "Help! I can't find my Mommy." I wouldn't say, "Sorry kid, you're on your own." I would jump through whatever hoop I need to jump through in order to get this kid to their parent - because as an adult, that's what you do. You use your years of reasoning ability, life experiences, and knowledge of social norms to solve problems. So it is beyond me, as an adult, why none of these men didn't think to call the Police immediately much less stop that man from doing what he was doing WHILE he was in the act of doing it. Actually, I understand that there were a lot different things at play but the idea of an adult not being . . . well, an adult - it shocks me. And I couldn't imagine what it must feel like to be a child and to be completely helpless even though I am surrounded by a bunch of so-called adults.

And last but not least . . .

As an American

Maybe I've watched too much Batman, or Superman, Spiderman, Captain America, Ironman, etc. You get my drift. Maybe I've been brainwashed to believe that every day guys can be super heroes. Remember this? When I think of this kind of cover up, I imagine some back woods, un-developed country somewhere with no laws set up to protect children. Either way, with the Catholic church and other cases in America of organizations being protected rather than children . . . I guess I should have known better. In this country, we celebrate people for being great coaches, and great business people and great entertainers. But when an organic opportunity for glory reveals itself - I guess that's when you find out whether someone is truly great . . . or not.

Speaking of which, today is November 11th, 2011 or 11/11/11. And it's also Veteran's day. I don't support war in any shape, size or form but this holiday is definitely not lost on me. My cousin is in Iraq at this very second, and I pray every day that he returns safely. So, I just wanted to acknowledge all of the men and women who have died and/or put their lives on the line for their countries.